[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBdf9jYj7o[/video]

Well worth watching and passing on.

Really good video. Shame it will probably never happen in the uk. IMO a large majority of cycling accidents here are due to utterly s*** road planning.

This video is really encouraging. I think it’s more difficult nowadays to widen the narrow streets. From my personal experience, I felt very safe cycling in Netherlands.

Before reading this bit, remember, most voters are car owners. (not most people of course, but most voters) most voters are var owners.

Your local councilor thinks bikes are a great idea and more people should cycle. Cuts obesity, traffic congestion, cheaper. All good.

He/she/it instructs your local authority to begin constructing cycle paths that are not on road.

OK says the L.A., £400 per meter & we don’t really own any useful land near where people actually want to go on the bike, and folk don’t like using them after dark due to perceived risk to personal safety, but we’ll try.

£400 a meter! For something that people won’t want to use! Any other options says the councilor.

Well we could do on-road cycle paths for about £100 a meter.

Excellent, do that.

Unfortunately most urban roads are fairly narrow already, you can’t build in peoples gardens, the footway can’t (& shouldn’t) get any narrower, the road can’t magically get wider, so we’ll have to remove the parking from outside peoples houses.

Suddenly the councilor is receiving emails a plenty from residents who believe paying council tax & v.e.d. gives them the right to park right outside their house. They will be voting for the other party next time if he/she/it doesn’t do something about it

Sod it! says the councilor, they can just ride on the pavement* like everyone else.

What can you do?

*Joke only roads engineers will get, hence not a joke!

What can you do?

What they did in Holland. i.e. Stop campaigning on behalf of cyclists (a bunch of bearded eccentrics in Lycra) and start asking for better transport for people.

Very good answer!

£400 a meter! For something that people won’t want to use! Any other options says the councilor.

Well we could do on-road cycle paths for about £100 a meter.

Or do what Surrey CC do and build a new path nobody walks on and a painte don cycle track on the road… see new bit between Ripley and Send..

What they did in Holland. i.e. Stop campaigning on behalf of cyclists (a bunch of bearded eccentrics in Lycra) and start asking for better transport for people.

We also need shops to start selling bikes for people and not cycling enthusiasts

We also need shops to start selling bikes for people and not cycling enthusiasts

they’ll only do that once you don’t need to be an enthusiast to cycle.

The answer is simply “more people riding bikes more of the time”

There isn’t really a need for expensive segregated cycle lanes (especially not the badly designed 2ft wide ones through potholes that taper out 20ft from every major junction), high vis, helmets etc. that’s all a victim-blaming sideline to the main issue.

The more people ride, the more drivers get used to them and expect to see them and actually HAVE to cater for them. London is very nearly there in terms of that thanks largely to a combination of the Cycle Hire scheme and the Congestion Charge and there’s the beginnings of a change in attitude in London.

The RAC’s message was clear on the radio the other day- get more people to do cycling training. Yes, Bradley Wiggins especially, he clearly can’t ride a bike.

rootes1 – Member

We also need shops to start selling bikes for people and not cycling enthusiasts

There’s lots of shops like this- we just don’t tend to shop in them, because we’re cycling enthusiasts.

There isn’t really a need for expensive segregated cycle lanes (especially not the badly designed 2ft wide ones through potholes that taper out 20ft from every major junction)

Two things: 2-foot wide cycle lanes that disappear when you need them aren’t “segregated” or “expensive”.

And.. kindly point me to an example of a prosperous industrialised country that has achieved mass cycling without putting in infrastructure.

There is definitely a need for infrastructure, but it is also an atitudinal thing. Which is unfortaunately a chicken/egg thing that I am not sure how to solve.

My observation related to this from here in Basel (NW CH):
Reasonable cycle lanes, not like Holland though, but deep respect for cyclists and generally an excellent, mututally respectful situation.

My hypothesis?
1) Everyone in CH rides a bike, I mean everyone. This tends to mean that car drivers are cyclists and so much more understanding and considerate, In fact all road users are (trucks, buses etc)

2) Car is at the bottom of the pile in terms of importance: in cities it is: a) Trams, b) People, c) Bikes d) Buses e) cars/trucks etc

3) 3rd party insuarnce for cycling is mandatory

Make of that what you will, but as a combo it seems to work well. I only have to keep my eyes open to cars with French or German plates – they are a bit more risky!

Kev

We got part-way in Darlington, after a couple of lots of Cycle Demonstration Town funding. Unfortunately, they wasted loads of the money on advertising, individual travel planning and water bottles with a logo on them.

In places, they spent the money on infrastructure. And almost-decent infrastructure at that: reasonably wide segregated bike paths. It’s not perfect, but in places there’s a glimpse of what we could have had.

As an example, from the end of town that I live it’s possible to make the two mile journey into the town centre without touching a main road. This forms part of my route to work and it’s lovely to ride.

It’s so nice in fact that my 53-year-old mum who hadn’t ridden a bike for 30 years has bought a sensible bike with a basket and rides into town.

Anything other than decent infrastructure will not work. it’s the infrastructure, stupid.

Big Scot, everyone in CH also rides mobilettes, so when they get in cars, they remember not to be that retard driver who doesnt check in their mirrors, looks once not twice, looks far enough ahead to know it’s not worth rushing an overtake to cut the cyclist up then sit in a traffic jam at a red light for a few minutes. I’m told that the Swiss car licence test is also more involved, they learn how to manoeuvre better, they learn motorway driving, they learn how to drive in poor conditions like snow and ice. And if i remember correctly, you keep your licence plate with you as you change cars and they (used to?) publish a book with names and addresses.

IMHO it comes down to driver education. Driving is seen as a right not a privilege, and not something to constantly improve at. We need a more stringent testing as well as more consideration and courtesy on the roads in general, and when I take over the world, I’ll be introducing mandatory retesting, and a 3 fails and you’re out rule (or at least go away and practice for a year or two). 🙂

Car whinge over, I do also wonder how many commuters i see on the roads have actually done a cycling proficiency test. Some are accidents waiting to happen.

Huge amounts of sense being talked by Chris Boardman and a transport planning consultant:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbvHgbeEQ9U[/video]

Car whinge over, I do also wonder how many commuters i see on the roads have actually done a cycling proficiency test. Some are accidents waiting to happen.

What does the cycling proficiency test assess about commuting on the road in traffic? Isn’t it done in the school playground by P6 children?

I know what you’re saying, some people commuting by bike do themselves no favours, but surely we want to try and get to the point where those people have a far lower chance of being killed as a result? These people are unlikely to kill someone else by sometimes cycling erratically, so focusing on them as the source of road deaths is surely somewhat misplaced?

(this of course takes no account of the number of fatalities suffered by non-erratic cycle commuters)

What does the cycling proficiency test assess about commuting on the road in traffic? Isn’t it done in the school playground by P6 children?

It’s now called Bikebility and at level three, which is what Y6 kids do now, it takes place on the road.

We also need shops to start selling bikes for people and not cycling enthusiasts

one of these is halfords, my colleague has twice been thwarted in purchasing the bike he wants because of the staff.

What we need is bike shops that are staffed by friendly enthusiasts but are geared up to sell bikes to people who’ve never owned them and won’t ‘overbike’ them with their first purchase